Seeking once more the Lord's
help to grant me the words to speak to you this morning, I'd
like you to turn to the chapter that we read together, John chapter
2, and the text you'll find in verse 17. And his disciples remembered
that it was written, the zeal of thine house hath eaten me
up. The zeal of thine house has eaten
me up. The text comes at the end of
the account of the Lord Jesus Christ entering into the temple
and as he entered into the temple he would have been faced with
multitudes of people in the court of the Gentiles buying and selling
goods in preparation for the Passover. At the time, the scripture
tells us it was, the Passover was at hand and it was the law
that every male Jew should make his way to Jerusalem to take
part in the Passover. And to save some of the people,
many of the people, some hassle in bringing their own goats and
in bringing their own sheep from miles around in the countryside,
they were just able to buy those things at Jerusalem. For those
who wanted to get the better trade, would have made deals
with the priests and been allowed into the temple itself, and there
they would have set up their stalls to sell their goods. And we read that there were those
who sold sheep, those who sold oxen, and those who sold doves,
and also the money changers. There was temple money. And so
when the people were doing business outside on the day-to-day, they
would have had the Greek money or the Roman money, and they
would have done their business in that. But when they came to
the temple or to pay a temple tax, that money had to be exchanged. And so there would be then exchangers
there who made money on the exchanging of those monies. And all of these
things were going on inside of the temple, a place which was
meant for the worship of God, a place which was dedicated specifically
for the worship of God. And within the temple, we know,
was the holy of holy place, the most holy place. which was the
Ark of the Covenant, within was the law of God, and God dwelt
in that place. Inside the Holy of Holies was
the pitch darkness, and God himself dwelt there in the midst of that
place. And Jesus, quite rightly, is
shocked by what is taking place. He shouts at them. He makes a
small scourge, a whip and he drives out the animals and the
oxen and he pours over, tips over the tables and he says, take these things
hence, make not My father's house, a house of merchandise. It was a house of prayer, it
was the house of God. It was the place where people
descended on to offer sacrifices to God and to worship God, a
place where people went to pray to God, a place where the sacrifices
and that Day of Atonement sacrifice all took place within the temple. And they had made it a place
of business, a worldly place, a place to make money, to make
profit from the people who were travelling to get to Jerusalem
for the Day of Pentecost. And as Jesus shouts out these
things, Make not my father's house a house of merchandise. The disciples remember something
that was spoken in the book of Psalms, Psalm 69 and verse 9. It says, For the zeal of thine
house hath eaten me up, and the reproach of them that reproach
thee are fallen upon me. We know that the scripture says
that when somebody does something to a believer or when somebody
does something to the children of Israel, it is as though they
are doing it to God himself. And as these people are making
a merchandise or making business or contaminating the temple courts,
they are bringing reproach to God. And Christ, in prophecy,
it says, the reproach of them that are reproaching thee are
fallen upon me. And so we see, as Christ sees
all of these things taking place, he feels it to be done to himself. and therefore a holy zeal is
raised up within his heart and he overthrows these money tables
and he chases out those that are buying and selling and he
chases out the animals from the temple court. In Matthew 21, we read that he does the same
thing again. Matthew chapter 21 verses 12 to 13, and Jesus went into the
temple of God and cast out all of them that sold and brought
in the temple and overthrew the tables of the money changers
and the seats of them that sold doves and said unto them, it
is written, my house shall be called the house of prayer, but
ye have made it a den of thieves. And so you see that after his
first miracle in Canaan of Galilee, when he changed the water into
wine and he began his ministry, he began to reveal himself to
the people, to manifest himself in the work that the Lord had
called him to do. He goes straightway into the
temple and overthrows and cleanses it. And then we see how quickly
things turn back to normal. How quickly, after they've been
chased away, they sneak back in again. how quickly they forget
all that the Lord Jesus Christ has said. And he has to go again
into the temple, nearing the end of his ministry, and cleanse
the temple again. And he chases them out and says,
my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made
it a den of thieves. And often we see, don't we, with
our own lives, how we try to throw out, as it were, all of
the money changers and the buying and the selling and the worldliness.
And then how quickly we forget and how it all comes rushing
back in and we've got to chase it all, chase it all out again. What I wanted us to look at today
was this temple, the house of God, the house of prayer, which
was the dwelling place, the dwelling place of God. The temple was
the centre, peace as it were, in which all the Jews focused
upon. It was the place in which they
were to congregate to. It was the centre of all the
sacrificial worship and it was where the high priest was and
where the Day of Atonement, the sacrifice there all took place,
centred around Jerusalem, the city of David. It was God's dwelling
place, God's house. The glory of God, the manifest
presence of God was there in the Holy of Holies. And we know that that place was
limited to only be accessed once per year through that special
ceremony that had to take place with the high priest. within that holy place, God was
present. You will remember, hopefully,
a few weeks ago we mentioned about those Greek words, omni,
that God is omniscient and he's also omnipresent. We saw that
that means he's all, he's all present everywhere at all of
the time. There is nowhere where we can
go to escape the presence of God. If we took a spaceship and
travelled for a hundred years at the speed of light, we would
never extinguish or escape from the presence of God. So how can
it be then that we can say that God's presence was there in the
temple? Why was Jesus so cross that people
had come into the holy place and were buying and selling and
continuing in a worldly manner when God is present everywhere
in all places? Why that particular place, was
it so special? What made it so different? Well,
God in his word has revealed to us that he can be present
in all places and at all times, yet people do not comprehend
or sense that presence. The people of the world are at
this very moment in the presence of God. But they don't sense
that presence. They are not afraid of that presence. That presence does not affect
them any bit whatsoever. God's presence is with us also
in this building. We cannot escape that presence. Some may be able to sense his
presence, Some may not be able to sense his presence, but that
does not eradicate the truth that God is ever present all
of the time in all places. But as he is ever present in
all places, he is also indwelling within
his people. He doesn't indwell in the lives
of unbelievers. Although they are surrounded
by his presence, he is not living within them. He's outside of
them. And so God is ever present, but
is also indwelling. His indwelling presence is in
the life or the body of every single true believer in the Lord
Jesus Christ. But also, there is his manifest
presence, his revealed presence. And that's what it was in the
temple. His revealed presence, His glory
was dwelling there in the Holy of Holies. And in that place,
no person was able to enter into because of the glory of Almighty
God. His manifest presence was there
in all of its splendor and power and holiness in Isaiah. Chapter 57, and verse 15, we
read something of God. For thus saith the high and lofty
one that inhabits eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in the
high and holy place. That is the dwelling place of
God, the high and holy place which is heaven. He exists outside
of time and inhabits eternity. And his name is holy. But, he says, I dwell in the
high and holy place. with him also, that is of a contrite
and a humble spirit, contrite repentance, a repentant spirit,
one who understands their sinfulness and turns from it. God dwells
with the contrite and the humble spirit to revive the spirit of
the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite. And so God has two dwelling places. One is in the high and lofty
place, the holy place, which is heaven. And the other is in
the heart of his people. In the Old Testament, they built
a special place, the Holy of Holies, for the dwelling place
of God. That is where God chose to be
and to reveal himself to the people of Israel. He was there
as their king amongst them and with them. And throughout scripture
we read of God's manifesting or revealing his presence to
his people in a specific and a marked way. Think of Adam and
Eve after they had sinned against God. The scripture tells us that
God walked in the garden. Genesis chapter 3 and verse 8. And they heard the voice of the
Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam
and his wife hid themselves from the presence, from the presence
of God. amongst the trees of the garden. And so there we notice that God
is in all places, and there is nowhere that you can hide from
him. And yet they heard the voice
of the Lord God. They heard God walking in the
garden, calling out, Adam, where are you? Why have you hid yourself
from me? Why are you trying to hide yourself
from my manifest presence, my immediate presence? And they were afraid. And it's hard for us to understand
or to grasp that God is able to be in all
places, seeing all things. understanding all that is going
on and yet almost pinpoint his presence to a particular place
at a particular time. And that then is able to be marked
by that person that he is revealing himself to. And they hid from
the presence of God. Abraham. The Lord appeared to Abraham. in Genesis 18, verse one, and
the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mimri, and he sat
in the tent door in the heat of the day, and lifted up his
eyes and looked, and lo, three men stood by him. And when he
saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door and bowed
himself to the ground. Lord appeared to him. He revealed
himself to Abraham in a mark and a pinpointed way which was
evident for him to see and for him to hear. In verse 20 it says,
and the Lord said because of the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah
is great and because their sin is very grievous I will now,
I will go down now and see whether they have done all together according
to the cry. which also is come upon to me, and if not, I will
know.' And the men turned their faces from thence and went towards
Sodom, but Abraham stood yet before the Lord. You see, the Lord had seen and
heard all that had took place in Sodom and Gomorrah, yet he
was going to go down. He was going to... reveal himself to them in a marked
and a specific way and he was going to bring judgment upon
them. And he revealed himself. He manifested
himself to Abraham. You think of Moses, when Moses
was by the bush and the Lord spoke to him out of the flame. The angel of the Lord appeared
unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of the bush, and
he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush
was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn
aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned. And
when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto
him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses, and he
said, here am I. And he said, draw not nigh hither,
put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou
standest is holy ground. And so God again comes and appears
to Moses. And in his very presence, the
area in which God was became holy. And so although God is omnipresent,
Yet as he reveals himself specifically, as he manifests himself in a
greater way, as he opens our understanding to his glory, the
very place where that takes place becomes holy ground. And you remember when Moses was told to build the tabernacle. and the specific details that
were to take place, that that building was to be able to be
transported, to be taken down and to be put together like a
tent. And God blessed that work. And he revealed himself at the
completion of that work in a special way. at Exodus 33. And it came to pass as Moses
entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended and
stood at the door of the tabernacle and the Lord talked with Moses.
And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle
door and all the people rose up and worshipped. every man
in his tent door. And the Lord spoke unto Moses
face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friends, and he turned
again into the camp. But his servant Joshua, the son
of none, a young man, departed not out of the temple. And so as they completed the
work, the glory of the Lord descended, the cloud in which God was. descended upon the tabernacle
and God talked with Moses as a man talks to his friend. And you know Moses basks in the
presence of God so much so he desires that God would show him
more. You know, when we look at a great
view, we take it in. It's glorious. Maybe the sun setting and all
the different colours and the wonderful thoughts that it brings
of creation and that it brings of God. But you want more. It's not enough. It doesn't satisfy us completely. And as Moses saw God in that
cloud, as he spoke to him, it shrouded in a cloud. He says,
I beseech thee, show me thy glory. Show me more. Reveal yourself
to me more in a greater, in a greater way. And he says, I will make
all my goodness pass before thee. I will proclaim The name of the
Lord before them, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. And
I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. Thou canst not see
my face. For there shall no man see my
face and live. And so God revealed himself to
Moses, showed him his glory, And although God's glory is,
as it were, in all places, yet it is hidden from us. As day by day we walk directly
in the presence of God and we cannot escape his presence, yet
he chooses in times and occasions to open up the windows of our
faith and to reveal himself to us in a greater measure. But it's never enough. It leaves you craving for more. I beseech thee, show me thy glory. I wonder if that's ever been
our prayer. I wonder if we've ever experienced
anything like that. We know that God is omnipresent,
yet There are times that we can look at in our lives when we
can say that God has shown me his glory. And there are times
when you can point at and say, yes, the Lord, he met me with
me there. He showed me his glory there. He showed me his love there at
that specific place. Maybe it's here in this very
building that God revealed his glory to you. Maybe you were
walking, maybe you were in prayer somewhere. But God, in his mercy,
he. He made his presence personal
to you as an individual, and he revealed himself to you and
your heart, your heart shone and your heart basked in that
glory. My mind also went to the temple
when Solomon built the temple. And, you know, he also grappled
with this concept that what is the point in me building a temple
for God to live when he fills the whole earth? 2 Chronicles 6. But will God in
very deed dwell with men on the earth? Behold, heavens and the
heavens of heavens cannot contain thee. How much less will this
house which I have built. You see, if God is omnipresent
in all places, How is it going to work that we're going to try
and construct, bring him down to fit into a box of the holy
of holies? And it can only be. that God
never ceases to be omnipresent but chooses to reveal himself
in a particular place at a particular time and as it were all of his
attributes are concentrated to a particular place and that place
becomes holy. But will God in very deed dwell
with men on earth? Behold, heavens and the heavens
of heavens cannot contain thee, how much less this house which
I have built. The end of the chapter, verse
41, he says, Now therefore arise, O Lord God, into thy resting
place. thou and the ark of thy strength.
Let thy priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation, and
let thy saints rejoice in goodness. O Lord God, turn not away thy
face from thy anointed. Remember the mercies of David,
thy servant. And when Solomon had made an
end of praying, then fire came down from heaven and consumed
the burnt offerings and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled
the house. the manifest presence of God
filled the house and the place became holy. And when all of
the children of Israel saw how the fire came down and the glory
of the Lord upon the house, they bowed themselves to their faces
to the ground upon the pavement and worshipped and said, praise
the Lord, saying, for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. And so as the Bible moves on,
there are the degrees of which God reveals himself to his people. And at the dedication of the
temple, the glory of the Lord filled the house. The presence
of God, the immediate presence of God filled the temple. in
answer to Solomon's prayer, and the place became the dwelling
place, the house of God, the house of prayer, where the children
of Israel focused their worship, was the centerpiece, the heart,
we could say, of their religion was there, focused upon Jerusalem
and upon the temple. Remember Daniel, when Daniel
prayed, he aimed himself towards Jerusalem. He understood that
that was the place where God was. And in answer to Solomon's
prayer, he says, when the people are driven away, when they face
this place, oh, hear thou in heaven, thy dwelling place, and
forgive. And so God is in all places and
at all times. yet he chooses to dwell among
men and in those times dwelt in the temple. We know that temple
was destroyed through King Nebuchadnezzar as the Babylonians took over
Jerusalem. They ransacked the temple, they
pulled it all down and then it was built again by Ezra and Nehemiah
and through the Through the time of the Lord
Jesus Christ, it was extended and worked on by King Herod. And during the time of the Lord
Jesus Christ, that temple was undergoing renovation. And that's
why they were surprised when Jesus says, I'm going to pull
this temple down and I'm going to raise it again in three days. And they says, 46 years was this
temple in building. They'll rear it up in three days.
through the whole of the lifetime of the Lord Jesus Christ, up
to its destruction, it was being worked on and renovated on. And
it was the dwelling place of God, the house of God, which
is why the Lord Jesus Christ was so was so righteously filled
with zeal to cleanse it, because it was a type of heaven itself,
which is the dwelling place of God. But Jesus says, I'm going
to pull it down. I'm going to destroy it. And
I'm going to build it again in three days. And the Bible tells us when they
said to him, verse 20, and said to the Jews, forty and six years
was this temple in the building, but thou reared it up in three
days. But he spoke of the temple of his body. We know when the
Lord Jesus Christ died upon the cross that the temple of the
curtain was ripped in two, and the way into the holy of holies
was now made clear. made free, made open, that all
who come to God through the Lord Jesus Christ have access into
the holy of holies, the true holy of holies, which is heaven
itself. And so the temple, seven years
after the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, more than that. After the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ, 70 AD, the temple was destroyed
completely. The Jews today have no temple,
but we have a temple, not made with hands. We have access to
enter into the Holy of Holies through that finished work of
the Lord Jesus Christ. But something changed. As we read, In Isaiah, he says,
the high and lofty one that inhabits eternity, whose name is holy,
I dwell in the high and holy place with him also, that is
of a contrite and a humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble
and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. The scripture
tells us that God dwells with his people. not just with them. He lives
in their hearts. Now if we truly examine ourselves,
we would confess, could ever God dwell here? I said to the children this morning,
would you like your thoughts written upon the wall? Some of
them said yes, they wouldn't mind having their thoughts written
on the wall. I personally would not like my thoughts written
on the wall. And I'm sure if we're honest
with ourselves, none of us really would. But the scripture tells
us God who knows the hearts, Christ knew the thoughts and
the intents of the heart, yet through his finished work and
through the work of the Holy Spirit he is able to cleanse
his people from all sin and make them a dwelling place of God. In the book of Acts on the day
of Pentecost when the church was praying Acts chapter two
and suddenly verse two. And suddenly there came a sound
from heaven of a rushing mighty wind and filled all the house
where they were sitting and appeared unto them cloven tongues like
as of fire. And it sat upon each of them.
And they were filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak
with other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance. They were
filled. wasn't from the outside, they
were filled from the inside with the Holy Spirit. That God's presence,
His immediate presence, His glory by His Spirit entered into them
and gave them gifts and abilities which they did not have before. Corinthians tells us, 1 Corinthians chapter 6, in verse 19. What? Know ye not that your body
is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which you have
of God. You are not your own, for you
are brought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your
body and in your spirits, which are God's. Do you not know, he says, do
you not understand that your body is now the temple of the
Holy Ghost who is in you? And as it was in the Old Testament,
the temple was the dwelling place of God. And that very presence,
his presence made that place holy. And so now, through the
finished work of Christ, he's able to cleanse his people and
justify his people from all sin, sanctify his people and make
them a vessel. of his mercy, a trophy of his
grace and a temple of the Holy Spirit, the dwelling place of
the Holy Spirit. Do you not know that your body
is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you now? As Jesus looked at all the buyers
and the sellers, as he looked at the sheep and the oxen and
the money changers and those that sold doves, he was filled
with a holy zeal to cleanse the place, to drive out that worldliness
that had crept in to the temple. The zeal of thine house has eaten
me up. The temple was the heart of the
Jewish religion, the centrepiece that was destroyed and Christ
comes and reigns within the hearts of his people. Their body becomes
a temple of the Holy Ghost. And what would he say if he came in? What would he
have to drive out of his temple? What would he have to drive out
of our bodies, that worldliness that has crept in? What worldly
thoughts we have. What worldly actions we have. What sinful motives we have. What sins we have let harbour
and fester within our hearts. What would he drive out? Take these things hence. Get
these things out of here. You imagine if you had a one-to-one
with the Lord Jesus Christ and he looked within you and what
would he say? Get that sin out. Get this sin
out. I'm not dwelling there with that
one. This is meant to be a house of prayer, but you have made
it a den of thieves. This is meant to be a dwelling
place of the Holy Spirit, and yet you have filled it with all
worldliness. Paul, and he writes to Timothy,
he says, but thou, but you, man of God, flee these things and
follow after righteousness and holiness and godliness. We need him to come. because
we ourselves can't do it. We are quite happy to dwell with
worldliness. We need him to come and to drive
out those things that have entered in and which contaminate our
minds. We need him to come to the church,
this church. and to make a small scourge of
cords, and to inflame us with a holy zeal for the things of God, for the
things of Christ, for the things of eternity. We look at our lives,
how easy it is. We just slip back. We come to
chapel on Sunday, we listen to the ministry of the word, and
then we enter into worldly habits. I speak of myself as well, how
I need Christ to come and scourge me and drive out worldliness
and all manner of evil that dwells within, and to give me that holy
zeal, that holy fire which he has. The zeal of thine house
has eaten me up. Oh, to have it, a true zeal for
the church, a true zeal for the advancement of the kingdom of
God, a true zeal for holiness and godliness and Christ likeness. We find it so easy in this modern
world. You just become bogged down with
materialism and worldliness and worldly attitudes. And so we need the spirit of
God to come and reveal his glory to us. To manifest the manifest glory
of Christ. To visit us and to make us holy
men of God and women of God. Christ, he was jealous over the
holiness of his father's house. I wonder if we are jealous over
the holiness of the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, those
of us who are believers in Christ. The scripture tells us, if your
eye offends you, pluck it out. If your arm offends you, cut
it off. If your leg offends you, cut it off. get rid of worldliness
and things which contaminate us and make us un-Christlike
and which try to draw us aside for material things, worldly
things. make us jealous for the holiness
of the church and for the holiness of our own bodies that we may
be fit for use for the use of the of the master and his disciples
remembered that it was written the zeal of thine house has eaten
me up. May each of us be given true
holy zeal to drive out that worldliness which creeps into every single
believer and to drive it out and to purify the dwelling place
of the Holy Spirit. Do you not know that your body
is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you? May the Lord
add his blessing. Amen. Our final hymn for this morning's
service is from Hymns for Worship, number 120. Come ye sinners, poor and wretched,
weak and wounded, sick and sore. Jesus, ready, stands to save
you, full of pity, joined with power. He is able, he is willing,
doubt no more. Hymns for Worship, number 120,
tune 691. Come ye sinners, poor and wretched,
weak and wounded, sick and poor. Jesus, ready stands to save you,
full of pity, joy, and power. He is able, he is able In the
dwelling of the Lord Come ye, ye, ye now and welcome The three
bounteous, glorified True belief and true repentance, every grace
that brings us nigh. Without money, without money,
come to Jesus Christ and die. Let not conscience make you linger,
nor a fitness fondly dream. All the fitness he requireth
is to fill your need of him. There speaketh you, there speaketh
you, tears of spirits rising new. Come ye weary, heavy laden,
bruised and broken by the foe. If you tarry till you're better,
you will never come at all. Not the righteous, not the righteous,
sin as Jesus came to call. To him prostrated the Father,
on the ground your Maker lies. Then on Calvary's tree, behold
him, there he'll cry before you. It is finished, it is finished,
in the realm of bliss and bliss. The near God, in God ascending,
feeds the merit of his time. venture only, venture only, tender
of the trusty suit. None but Jesus, none but Jesus, Almighty God, we thank Thee for
Thy Word. We do pray that Thou reveal Thyself
unto each and every one of us. We acknowledge that Thou art
omnipresent, that Thou art in all places, yet we pray that
Thou would come and dwell within our hearts. We acknowledge that
we are unrighteous in Thy sight, yet we pray that through the
finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, we thank Thee that we
are able to be cleansed from all sin. Do make us then a dwelling
place of thy Holy Spirit and do help us to purge out the dross
that is found within us. And we pray that thou be with
us now as we go home and do meet, we pray, this evening with us
again. And now may the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father with the fellowship
and the communion of the Holy Spirit. Rest and abide with us
each now and forevermore. Amen.